Management Information Systems

Managing the Digital Firm 15th Edition

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Management Information Systems Managing the Digital Firm 15th Edition Laudon Test Bank

Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm, 15e (Laudon)

Chapter 2 Global E-business and Collaboration

1) Producing a bill of materials is a business process in which of the following functional

areas?
A) Finance and accounting
B) Human resources
C) Manufacturing and production
D) Research and development
E) Sales and marketing
Answer: C
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Reflective thinking
LO: 2-1: What are business processes? How are they related to information systems?

2) Which of the following is an example of a cross-functional business process?

A) Identifying customers
B) Transporting the product
C) Creating a new product
D) Assembling a product
E) Paying creditors
Answer: C
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Analytical thinking
LO: 2-1: What are business processes? How are they related to information systems?

3) Order fulfillment involves all of the following business processes except:

A) checking the customer's credit.
B) assembling the product.
C) submitting the order.
D) making customers aware of the product.
E) shipping the product.
Answer: D
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Reflective thinking
LO: 2-1: What are business processes? How are they related to information systems?

4) The ________ function is responsible for identifying customers.

A) finance and accounting
B) human resources
C) manufacturing and production
D) sales and marketing
E) distribution and logistics
Answer: D
Difficulty: Easy
AACSB: Reflective thinking
LO: 2-1: What are business processes? How are they related to information systems?
1
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5) According to the chapter case, ABB decided to switch from its existing corporate intranet for
all of the following reasons except:
A) the intranet was too expensive to maintain.
B) the intranet was too static and outmoded to meet its current needs.
C) the intranet had poor capabilities for searching for information.
D) the intranet lacked collaboration tools.
E) the intranet was confusing and inefficient.
Answer: A
Difficulty: Challenging
AACSB: Reflective thinking
LO: 2-1: What are business processes? How are they related to information systems?

6) Identifying customers is a business process handled by the human resources function.

Answer: FALSE
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Information technology
LO: 2-1: What are business processes? How are they related to information systems?

7) One example of a business process is shipping a product to a customer.

Answer: TRUE
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Analytical thinking
LO: 2-1: What are business processes? How are they related to information systems?

8) What is the connection between organizations, information systems, and business processes?
Answer: Business processes refer to the manner in which work activities are organized,
coordinated, and focused to produce a specific business result. They also represent unique ways
in which organizations coordinate work, information, and knowledge and the ways in which
management chooses to coordinate work. Managers need to pay attention to business processes
because they determine how well the organization can execute, and thus are a potential source
for strategic success or failures. Although each of the major business functions has its own set
of business processes, many other business processes are cross functional. Information systems
can help organizations achieve great efficiencies by automating parts of these processes or by
helping organizations rethink and streamline them. Firms can become more flexible and
efficient by coordinating and integrating their business processes to improve management of
resources and customer service.
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Analytical thinking
LO: 2-1: What are business processes? How are they related to information systems?

2
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9) What are cross-functional business processes? Give an example.
Answer: Cross-functional processes are those that require input, cooperation, or coordination
between the major business functions in an organization. For instance, when a salesman takes
an order, the major business functions of planning, production, inventory control, shipping,
accounting, and customer relations will all be involved before the order is completed.
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Analytical thinking
LO: 2-1: What are business processes? How are they related to information systems?

10) Your aunt has asked you for your suggestions to make her business, a local sandwich shop,
more efficient. Describe at least three types of business processes that a sandwich shop has.
Can any be better coordinated through the use of information systems?
Answer: The business processes of a sandwich shop include: Taking orders, making
sandwiches, selling to the customer, ordering supplies, opening the store, closing the store,
cleaning the store, paying employees, hiring employees, paying creditors and vendors, creating
financial statements, paying taxes, managing cash. Many of these processes could be helped by
better information systems, specifically those that require recorded data, such as any financial
processes (payments, cash management, taxes, salaries) and information gathered from and
distributed to employees.
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Analytical thinking
LO: 2-1: What are business processes? How are they related to information systems?

11) If your main supplier was late in delivering goods, which type of system would you use to
update your production schedule?
A) ESS
B) TPS
C) MIS
D) DSS
E) BIS
Answer: B
Difficulty: Moderate
AACSB: Analytical thinking
LO: 2-2: How do systems serve the different management groups in a business and how do
systems that link the enterprise improve organizational performance?

3
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 49. The over flowing waters of the ocean, broke their bounds with as
much ease, as they tear asunder the marine plants; and the breathless
skies resounded to the roaring of the clouds all around.
50. The sky was split into pieces, and fell down in fragments; and the
regents of the skies fled afar with loud cries. And comets and meteors
were hurled from heaven, in the forms of whirlpools.
51. There were fires and firebrands, seen to be burning on all sides of
the skies, earth and heaven; and flaming and flashing as liquid gold and
luminous gems, and as snakes with colour of vermilion.
52. My flaming and flying portents, with their burning crests and tails,
were seen to be flashing all about, and flung by the hands of Brahmá,
both in the heaven above and earth below.
53. All the great elementary bodies, were disturbed and put out of
order; and the sun and moon and the regents of air and fire, with the gods
of heaven and hell (name by Pavana and Agni, and Indra and Yama),
were all in great confusion.
54. The gods seated even in the abode of Brahmá, were afraid of their
impending fall; when they heard the gigantic trees of the forests falling
headlong, with the tremendous crash of pata-pata noise.
55. The mountains standing on the surface of the earth, were shaking
and tottering on all sides; and a great earthquake shook the mountains of
Kailása and Meru, to their very bottom and caverns and forests.
56. The ominous tornadoes at the end of the kalpa period, overthrew
the mountains and cities and forests, and overwhelmed the earth and all
in a general ruin and confusion.
 CHAPTER LXXII.

D N F E .

Argument:—Brahmá’s suppression of his Respiration; his

settling on the wings of air and his form of Virát.

V ASISHTHA continued:—Now the self-born Brahmá, having

compressed his breath in his form of Virát (or the heart); the aerial
or atmospheric air, which is borne on the wings of wind, lost its
existence.
2. The atmospheric air, which is the very breath of Brahmá being thus
compressed in his breast; what other air could there remain, to uphold
the starry frame and the system of the universe.
3. The atmospheric air, being compressed with the vital breath of
Brahmá; the perturbed creation (as described before), was about to come
to its ultimate quietus.
4. The firmament being no more upheld by its support of the air, gave
way to the fiery bodies of meteors, to fall down on earth, as starry
flowers from the arbour of heaven.
5. The orbs of heaven, being unsupported by the intermediate air, were
now falling on the ground; like the unfailing and impending fruits of our
deserts, or the flying fates falling from above.
6. The gross desire or the crude will of Brahmá, being now at its end
at the approach of dissolution; there was an utter stop, of the actions and
motions of the siddhas, as that of the flame of fire before its extinction.
7. The world-destroying winds were winding in the air, like the thin
and flying scraps of cotton; and then the siddhas fell down mute from
heaven, after the loss of their strength and power of speech.
 8. The great fabrics of human wishes, fell down with the cities of the
Gods; and the peaks of mountain were hurled headlong, by shocks of
tremendous earthquakes.
9. Ráma rejoined:—Now sir, if the world is but a representation of the
ideal in the mind of the great God Brahmá or Virát; then what is the
difference of earth, heaven and hell to him (who encompasses the whole
in his body or mind).
10. How can these worlds be said, to be the members of his body; or
can it be thought, that the God resides in them with his stupendous form.
11. I well know that Brahmá is wilful spirit of God, and has no form of
himself; and so do I take this world, for a formless representation of the
will or idea in the Divine Mind. Please sir, explain this clearly unto me.
12. Vasishtha replied:—In the beginning this world was not in
existence, nor inexistence either; because there was the eternal Intellect,
which engrossed all infinity in itself, and the whole vacuity of space with
its essence.
13. This vacuity of it (the subjective chit), is known as the objective
chetya or thought; and the intellect without forsaking its form, becomes
chetana or the power of intellection (or the mind) itself.
14. Know this intellection as the jíva or living soul, which being
condensed (with feelings &c.) becomes the gross mind; but none of these
essences or forms of existence, have any form whatever.
15. The vacuity of the intellect, remains as the pure vacuum in itself
forever; and all this which appears as otherwise, is no other and nothing
without the self-same soul.
16. The very soul assumes to it its egoism (or personality), and
thinking itself as the mind, becomes sullied with its endless desires, in its
vacuous form. (The pure soul is changed to the impure spirit or volitive
mind).
17. Then this intellectual principle, thinks itself as the air, by its own
volition; and by this false supposition of itself, it becomes of an aerial
form in the open air.
18. Then it thinks of its future gross form, and immediately finds itself
transformed to an aerial body, by its volition or sankalpa. (The will being
master to the thought).
 19. Though the soul, spirit and mind, are vacuous in their natures; yet
they can assume aerial forms to themselves by their will, as the mind
sees its imaginary cities; and so doth the Lord take upon Him any form it
pleases.
20. And as the knowledge of our minds, is purely of an aerial nature,
so the intelligence of the all-intelligent Lord is likewise of an intellectual
kind; and he takes and forsakes any form as he supposes and pleases for
himself.
21. As we advance to the knowledge of recondite truth, so we come to
lose the perception of size and extension; and to know this extended
world as a mere nullity, though it appears as a positive entity.
22. By knowledge of the real truth, we get rid of our desires, as it is by
our knowledge of the unity and the absence of our egoism or personality,
that we obtain our liberation. (i.e. The knowledge of our nothingness).
23. Such is He—the supreme One, and is Brahma the entity of the
world. And know Virát, O Ráma, to be the body of Brahma, and the form
of the visible world. (Brahma, Brahmá and Virát, are the triple hypostasis
of the One and same God).
24. The desires or will, is of the form of empty vacuum, and the
erroneous conceptions which rise in it; the same give birth to the world,
which is thence called the mundane egg.
25. Know all this is non esse, and the forms you see, are but formation
of your fancy; in reality there is nothing in esse; and tuism and egoism
are no entities at any time.
26. How can the gross world be ever attached to the simple Intellect,
which is of the nature of a void; how can a cause or secondary causality,
be ever produced in or come out from a mere void?
27. Therefore all this production is false, and all that is seen a mere
falsity; all this is a mere void and nothing, which erroneously taken for
something.
28. It is the Intellect only which exhibits itself, in the forms of the
world and its productions, in the same manner as the air begets its
pulsations (in the form of winds), in the very calm air itself.
29. The world is either as something or as nothing at all, and devoid of
unity and duality; know the whole to lie in the empty vacuity of the
Intellect, and is as void and transparent as the same.
 30. I am extinct to all these endless particulars and distinctions, and
whether you take them as real or unreal, and be with or without your
egoism, it is nothing to me.
31. Be without any desire and quiet in your mind, remain silent and
without fickleness in your conduct; do whatever you have to do, or avoid
to do it without anxiety.
32. The eternal One, that is ever existent in our notion of Him, is
manifest also in the phenomenal, which is no other than Himself. But our
imperfect notion of God, has many things in it which are unknown to us
and beyond our comprehension; and such are the phenomenals also, that
are so palpable unto us. (We have the innate idea of God, but no
knowledge of his inner or outer nature and attributes, which are
displayed in all existence).
 CHAPTER LXXIII.

D P V —T
G N .

Argument:—If there is no truth or untruth in the creation,

how can both be true or false at once.

R ÁMA said:—Sir, you have said at length regarding our bondage and
liberation, and our knowledge of the world as neither a reality nor
an unreality also; and that it neither rises nor sets, but is always existent
as at first and ever before.
2. I have well understood Sir, all your lectures on the subjects, and yet
wish to know more of these, for my full satisfaction with the ambrosial
drops of your speech.
3. Tell me sir, how there is no truth nor any untruth, either an
erroneous view of the creation as a reality, or its view as a mere vacuum:
4. In such a case, I well understand what is the real truth; yet I want
you to tell more of this, for my comprehension of the subject of creation.
5. Vasishtha replied:—All this world that is visible to us, with all its
moving and unmoving creatures; and all things with all their varieties,
occasioned by difference of country and climate.
6. All these are subject to destruction, at the great dissolution of the
world; together with Brahmá, Indra, Upendra, Mahendra and the Rudras
at the end.
7. Then there remains something alone, which is unborn and increate
and without its beginning; and which is ever calm and quiet in its nature.
To this no words can reach, and of which nothing can be known.
 8. As the mountain is larger and more extended than a mustard seed,
so is the sky much more than that; but the entity of vacuity is the greatest
of all.
9. Again as the dusts of the earth, are smaller than the great mountain;
so the stupendous universe, is a minute particle in comparison with the
infinite entity of the vacuity of God.
10. After the long lapse of unmeasured time, in the unlimited space of
eternity (i.e. at the end of a Kalpa age); and after the dissolution of all
existence in the transcendent vacuum of the Divine Mind (lit., thinking
soul).
11. At this time the great vacuous intellect, which is unlimited by
space and time, and is quite tranquil by being devoid of all its desire and
will; looks in itself by its reminiscence, the atomic world in aeriform
state (as the soul ruminates over the past in its dream).
12. The intellect reconnoitres over this unreality within itself, as it
were in its dream; and then it thinks on the sense of the word Brahma or
enlargement, and beholds the dilation of these minutiae in their
intellectual forms (i.e. the developed ideas).
13. It is the nature of the intellect to know the minute ideas, which are
contained in its sensory; and because it continues to look upon them, it is
called their looker. (i.e. The subjective principle of the objective
thoughts).
14. (In order to clear how the intellect can be both the subjective and
objective at once, it is said that:) As a man sees himself as dead in his
dream, and the dead man sees his own death; so doth the intellect see the
minute ideas in itself. (Hence it is not impossible for the contraries to
subsist together).
15. Hence it is the nature of the intellect, to see its unity as a duality
within itself; and to remain of its own nature, as both the subjective and
objective by itself.
16. The intellect is of the nature of vacuum, and therefore formless in
itself; and yet it beholds the minute ideas to rise as visibles before it, and
thereby the subjective viewer becomes the duality of the objective view
also.
17. It then finds its minute self, springing out distinctly in its own
conception; just as a seed is found to sprout forth in its germ. (This is the
first step of the conception of personality of the universal spirit).
18. It has then the distinct view of space and time, and of substance
and its attributes and actions before its sight; but as these are yet in their
state of internal conceptions, they have as yet received no names for
themselves.
19. Wherever the particle of the intellect shines (or that which is
perceptible to it); is called the place (or object), and whenever it is
perceived the same is termed as time, and the act of perception is styled
the action.
20. Whatever is perceived (by the intellect), the same is said as the
object; and the sight or seeing thereof by it, is the cause of its perception,
just as the light of a luminary, is the cause of ocular vision.
21. Thus endless products of the intellect appear before it, as distinct
from one another by their time, place, and action; and all these appearing
as true, like the various colours of the skies in the sky.
22. The light of the intellect shines through different parts of the body,
as the eye is the organ whereby it sees; and so the other organs of sense
for its perception of other objects. (All these are called axas answering
the sight of the eyes).
23. The intellectual particle, shining at first within itself, bears no
distinct name except that of tanmátra or its inward perception; which is
as insignificant a term as empty air.
24. But the shadow of the atomic intellect falling upon the empty air,
becomes the solid body; which shoots forth into the five organs of sense,
owing to its inquest into their five objects of form and the rest.
25. The intellectual principle, being then in need of retaining its
sensations in the sensorium, becomes the mind and understanding (which
is called the sixth or internal organ of sense).
26. Then the mind being actuated by its vanity, takes upon it the
denomination of egoism, and is inclined to make imaginary divisions of
space and time.
27. Thus the minute intellect comes to make distinctions of time, by
giving them the different denomination of the present, past and future.
28. Again with regard to space, it denominates one place as upper and
another as lower; and goes on giving different appellations of sides (or
the points of compass), to one invariable space in nature.
29. It then comes to understand the meanings of words, and invent the
terms signifying time and space, action and substance.
30. Thus the intellect bearing a vacuous form in the primordial
vacuum, became the spiritual or lingadéha of its own accord, until it was
diffused all over the world (which is thence called the mundane God).
31. Having long remained in that state as it thought, it took upon it the
compleately concrete material form through which it was transfused.
32. Though formed originally of air in the original air, and was
perfectly pure in its nature; yet being incorporated in the false corporeal
form, it forgot its real nature; as the solar heat in conjunction with sand,
is mistaken for water.
33. It then takes upon itself and of its own will, a form reaching to the
skies; to which it applied to the sense of the word head to some part, and
that of the word feet to another. (The highest heaven is the head and the
earth the foot-stools of God).
34. It applied to itself the sense of the words breast, sides and to other
parts, by adopting their figurative sense and rejecting the literal ones.
(Virát is the human figure for the macrocosm of the universe).
35. By thinking constantly on the forms of things, as this is a cow and
that is a horse &c., as also of their being bounded by space and time; it
became conversant with the objects of different senses.
36. The same intellectual particle, saw likewise the different parts of
its body; which it termed its hands, feet &c., as its outward members;
and the heart &c., as the inner members of the body.
37. In this manner is formed the body of Brahmá, as also those of
Vishnu and the Rudras and other Gods; and so also the forms of men and
worms are produced from their conception of the same.
38. But in fact there is nothing, that is really made or formed; for all
things are now, as they have been ever before. All this is the original
vacuum, and primeval intelligence; and all forms are the false formations
of fancy.
39. Virát is the seed producing the plants of the three worlds, which
are productive of many more, as one root produces many bulbs under it.
Belief in the creation, puts a bolt to the door of salvation; and the
appearance of the world, is as that of a light and fleeting cloud without
any rain.
40. This Virát is the first male, rising unseen of his own will. He is the
cause of all actions and acts.
41. He has no material body, no bone or flesh, nor is he capable of
being grasped under the fist of anybody.
42. He is as quiet and silent, as the roaring sea and cloud, and the loud
roar of lions and elephants, and the din of battle, is unheard by the
sleeping man.
43. He remains neither as a reality, nor entirely as an unreality; but
like the notion of a waking man, of a warrior seen to be fighting in his
dream. (i.e. As the faint idea of an object seen in dream).
44. Although his huge body stretches to millions of miles, yet it is
contained in an atom with all the worlds that lie hid in every pore of his
body. (Meaning—the cosmos contained in a grain of the brain).
45. Though thousands of worlds and millions of mountains compose
the great body of the unborn Virát, yet they are not enough to fill it
altogether, as a large quantity of grain, is not sufficient to fill a
winnowing basket.
46. Though myriads of worlds are stretched in his body, yet they are
but an atom in comparison with its infinity; and the Virát is represented
to contain all in his body, yet it occupies no space or place, but resembles
a baseless mountain in a dream.
47. He is called the self-born and Virát also, and though he is said to
be the body and soul of the world, yet he is quite a void himself.
48. He is also named as Rudra and Sanatana, and Indra and Upendro
also; he is likewise the wind, the cloud and the mountain in his person.
49. The minute particle of the Intellect, like a small spark of fire,
inflates and spreads itself at first; and then by thinking its greatness, it
takes the form of chitta or the thinking mind, which with its self-
consciousness becomes the vast universe.
50. Then being conscious of its afflation, it becomes the wind in
motion; and this is the aeriform body of Virát.
51. Then it becomes the vital breath, from the consciousness of its
inspiration and expiration in the open air.
 52. It then imagines of an igneous particle in its mind, as children
fancy a ghost where there is none; and this assumes the forms of
luminous bodies (of the sun, moon, and stars) in the sky.
53. The vital breath of respiration, are carried by turns through the
respiratory organs into the heart; whence it is borne on the wings of air to
sustain the world, which is the very heart of Virát.
54. This Virát is the first rudiment of all individual bodies in the
world, and in their various capacities forever.
55. It is from this universal soul, that all individual bodies have their
rise, and according to their sundry desires; and as these differ from one
another in their outward shapes, so they are different also in their inward
natures and inclinations.
56. As the seed of Virát sprang forth at first, in the nature and
constitution of every individual being; it continues to do so in the same
manner in the heart of every living, agreeably to the will of the same
causal principle.
57. The sun, moon and the winds, are as the bile, phlegm in the body
of Brahmá; and the planets and stars, are as the circulating breath and
drops of the spittle of phlegm of that deity.
58. The mountains are his bones, and the clouds his flesh; but we can
never see his head and feet, nor his body and skin.
59. Know, O Ráma, this world to be the body of Virát, and an
imaginary form by his imagination only. Hence the earth and heaven and
all the contents, are but the shadow of his Intellectual vacuity.
 CHAPTER LXXIV.

D C V
(C ).

Argument:—Description of the several parts and Members

of the body of Virát.

V ASISHTHA continued:—Hear now more about the body of Virát,

which he assumed to himself of his own will in that Kalpa epoch,
together with the variety of its order and division, and its various
customs and usages.
2. It is the transcendent vacuous sphere of the intellect, which makes
the very body of Virát; it has no beginning, middle or end, and is as light
as an aerial or imaginary form.
3. Brahmá who is without desire, beheld the imaginary mundane-egg
appearing about him, in its aerial form (of a chimera).
4. Then Brahmá divided this imaginary world of his in twain. It was of
a luminous form, from which he came out as a luminary, like a bird
matured in its egg. (This is hence called Brahmánda or egg of Brahmá).
5. He beheld one half (or the upper hemisphere) of this egg, rising
high in the upper sky; and saw the other half to constitute the lower
world, and both of which he considered as parts of himself.
6. The upper part of Brahmá’s egg, is termed as the head of Virát; the
lower part is styled his footstool, and the midway region is called his
waist.
7. The midmost part of the two far separated portions, is of immense
extent, and appearing as a blue and hollow vault all around us.
 8. The heaven is the upper roof of this hollow, likening to the palate of
the open mouth, and the stars which are studded in it, resemble the spots
of blood in it. The breath of the mouth is as vital air, which supports all
mortals and the immortal Gods.
9. The ghosts, demons and ogres, are as worms in his body; and the
cavities of spheres of the different worlds, are as the veins and arteries in
his body.
10. The nether worlds below us, are the footstools of Virát; and the
cavities under his knees, are as the pits of infernal regions.
11. The great basin of water in the midst of the earth, and surrounding
the islands in the midst of them; is as the navel and its pit in the centre of
the body of Virát.
12. The rivers with the purling waters in them, resemble the arteries of
Virát with the purple blood running in them; and the Jam-bu-dvípa is as
his lotiform heart, with the mount Meru as its pericarp.
13. The sides of his body, are as the sides of the sky; and the hills and
rocks on earth, resemble the spleen and liver in the body of Virát; and the
collection of cooling clouds in the sky, is like the thickening mass of fat
in his body.
14. The sun and the moon are the two eyes of Virát, and the high
heaven is his head and mouth; the moon is his marrow, and the
mountains are the filth of his person.
15. The fire is the burning heat, and bile in his bowels; and the air is
the breath of his nostrils (and so the other elements are humours of his
body).
16. The forests of Kalpa trees and other woods, and the serpentine
races of the infernal regions, are the hairs and tufts of hairs on his head
and body. (All these are parts of the one undivided whole of Virát’s
body).
17. The upper region of the solar world, forms the capt head of Virát’s
body; and the zodiacal light in the concavity beyond the mundane
system, is the crest on top of Virát’s head.
18. He is the universal Mind itself, has no individual mind of his own;
and he being the sole enjoyer of all things, there is nothing in particular
that forms the object of his enjoyment.
 19. He is the sum of all the senses, therefore there is no sense beside
himself; and the soul of Virát being fully sensible of every thing, it is a
mere fiction to attribute to him the property of any organ of sense. (It is a
mere figure of speech to say God hears and sees, when the omniscient
soul knows all without the aid of the organs of seeing and hearing).
20. There is no difference of the property of an organ (as the hearing
of the ear); and its possessor—the mind, in the person of Virát, who
perceives by his mind all organic sensations, without the medium of their
organs.
21. There is no difference in doings of Virát and those of the world; it
is his will or thought alone which acts with many (or active) force (on
the passive world), both in their transitive as well as in their causal
forms.
22. All actions and events of the world, being said to be same with his,
our lives and deaths in this world, are all conformable to his will. (This
passage is explained in four different ways in the gloss).
23. It is by his living that the world lives, and so it dies away with his
death; and just as it is the case, with the air and its motion, so it is with
the world and Virát to act or subside together. (But Virát being the god of
nature in general, he acts by general and not by partial laws, and is
therefore neither affected by particular events nor ever directs any
particular accident at any place or time). (Both of which are the one and
the samething).
24. The world and Virát are both of the same essence, as that of air
and its motion in the wind; that which is the world, the same is Virát; and
what Virát is, the very same is the world also. (The same thing
personified as another).
25. The world is both Brahmá as well as Virát, and both of which are
its synonyms according to its successive stages; and are but forms of the
will of the pure and vacuous intellect of God. (The will was at the
beginning, Aham bahu syam; i.e. I will become many).
26. Ráma asked:—Be it so that Virát is the personified will of God,
and of the form of vacuum; but how is it that he is considered as Brahma
himself in his inner person?
27. Vasishtha replied:—As you consider yourself as Ráma and so
situated in your person also; so Brahmá—the great father of all, is the
wilful soul only in his person.
28. The souls of holy men also, are full with Brahma in themselves;
and their material bodies, are as mere images of them.
29. And as your living soul is capable, of fixing its residence in your
body; so the self-willed soul of Brahma, is by far more able to reside in
his body of the Brahmánda-Universe.
30. If it is possible for the plant, to reside in its seed, and for animal
life to dwell in the body; it must likewise be much more possible for the
spirit of Brahma, to dwell in a body of its own imagination.
31. Whether the Lord be in his consolidated form of the world, or in
his subtile form of the mind, He is the same in his essence, though the
one lies inside and the other outside of us, in his inward and outward
appearance.
32. The holy hermit who is delighted in himself, and continues as
mute as a log of wood and as quiet as a block of stone; remains with his
knowledge of I and thou (i.e. of the subjective and objective as well as of
the general and particular) fixed in the universal soul of Virát.
33. The holy and God knowing man, is passionless under all
persecution, as an idol which they make with ligatures of straw and
string; he remains as calm as the sea, after its howling waves are hushed;
and though he may be engaged in a great many affairs in the world, yet
he remains as calm and quiet in his mind, as a stone is unperturbed in its
heart.
 CHAPTER LXXV.

D F C
W .

Argument:—Destruction of the world by the great fire,

produced by a dozen of suns at the behest of Brahmá.

V ASISHTHA continued:—Then sitting in my meditation of Brahmá,

I cast my eyes around, I came to the sight of the region before me.
2. It being then midday, I beheld a secondary sun behind me,
appearing as a conflagration over a mountain (or a burning mountain), at
the furthest border of that side.
3. I saw the sun in the sky as a ball of fire, and another in the water
burning as the submarine fire; I beheld a burning sun in the south east
corner, and another in the southern quarter.
4. Thus I saw four fiery suns on the four sides of heaven, and as many
in the four corners of the sky also.
5. I was astonished to find so many suns all at once in all the sides of
heaven; and their flame-fire which seemed to burn down their presiding
divinities—the Agni, Váyu, Yama, Indra &c. (The twelve suns of Hindu
Astronomy, are the so many solar mansions in the twelve signs of the
zodiac, which encircle all the sides of the compass, together with the
personified climates under the same).
6. As I was looking astonished at these unnatural appearances, in the
heavens above; there appeared on a sudden a terrestrial sun before me,
bursting out of the submarine regions below.
 7. Eleven of these suns were as reflexions of the one sun, seen in a
prismatic mirror; and they rose out of the three suns of Brahmá, Vishnu
and Siva, in the vacuity of the different sides of heaven. (The gloss
explains the eleven suns, as the eleven Rudra forms of Siva—the god of
destruction amidst the Hindu Trinity).
8. The same form of Rudra with its three eyes, shone forth in the
forms of the twelve burning suns of heaven. (As Siva with the eleven
Rudras, makes the number twelve, so doth the sun with the other eleven
signs of the zodiac, make the same number).
9. In this manner the sun burnt down the world, as the flame of fire
burns away dry wood of the forest; and the world was dried up of its
moisture, as in the parching days of summer season.
10. The solar fire burnt away the woods, without any literal fire or
flame; and the whole earth was as dry as dust by this fireless
incendiarism.
11. My body became heated and my blood boiled as by the heat of a
wild fire; and I left that place of torrid heat, and ascended to the remoter
and higher regions of air.
12. I beheld the heavenly bodies hurling as tops, flung from the string
held by a mighty hand; and I saw from my aerial seat, the rising of the
blazing suns in heaven.
13. I beheld the twelve suns burning in the ten sides of it, and I saw
also the extensive spheres of the stars, whirling with incredible velocity.
14. The waters of the seven oceans were boiling, with a gurgling
noise; and burning meteors were falling over the cities in farthest worlds.
15. The flame flashed upon distant mountains, making them flare with
vermeil hue, and splitting noise; and continued lightnings flashed upon
the great edifices on every side, and put the canopy of heaven in a flame.
16. The falling buildings emitted a cracking and crackling noise all
around, and the earth was covered with columns of dark smoke, as by the
thickening clouds and mists.
17. The fumes rising as crystal columns, appeared as turrets and spires
upon the towers on earth; and the loud noise of wailing beasts and men,
raised a gurgling (gharghara) clangor all over the ground.
 18. The falling of cities upon men and beasts, made a hideous noise
and huge heaps of omnium gatherum on earth; and the falling stars from
heaven, strewed the earth with fragments of gems and jewels.
19. All human habitations were in flames, with the bodies of men and
beasts, burning in their respective homes and houses; and the noiseless
skirts of villages and towns, were filled with the stink of dead and
burning bodies.
20. The aquatic animals were stewed, under the tepid waters of the
seas: and the cry of people within the city, was hushed by the howling of
the ambient flames on all sides.
21. The elephants of the four quarters of heaven, fell down and rolled
upon the burning ground, and uplifted the hills with their tusks (to shelter
themselves from the falling fires); while the caverns of the mountains,
were emitting gusts of smoke, from the subterranean fire.
22. The burning hamlets and habitations, were crushed and smashed
under the falling stones and hills; while the mountain elephants yelled
aloud, with their deadly groans and agonies.
23. Heated by sunheat, all living beings rushed to and splashed the hot
waters of seas, and the mountainous vidyádharas fell down into the
hollow bosom of mountains, bursting by their volcanic heat.
24. Some being tired with crying, and others resorting to their yoga
meditation, remained quiet in some places; and the serpent races were
left to roll on the burning cinders, both below as well as upon the earth.
25. The voracious marine beasts as sharks and whales; being baked in
the drying channels, were driven to the whirlpools of the deep; and the
poor fishes attempting to evade the smart fire, flew into the airs by
thousands and thousands.
26. The burning flames, then clad as it were, in crimson apparel, rose
high in the air; and there leaping as it were in dancing, caught the
garments of the Apsaras in heaven.
27. The desolating Kalpa fire, being then wreathed with its flashing
flames, began to dance about all around; with the loud sound of bursting
bamboos and cracking trees, as it were with the beating of drums and
timbrels.
28. The sportive fire danced about like a playful actor, in the ruinous
stage of the world.
 29. The fire ravaged through all lands and islands, and desolated all
forests and forts; it filled all caves and caverns and the hollow vault of
sky, till at last it over reached the tops of the ten sides of heaven.
30. It blazed in caverns and over cities and in all sides of dales, and
the lands; it blazed over hills and mountain tops, and the sites of the
siddhas and on the seas and oceans.
31. The flames flashing from the eyes of Siva, and the Rudras, boiled
the waters of the lakes and rivers; and burned the bodies of devas and
demons, and those of men and serpent races; and there arose a hoarse
whispering sound from everywhere.
32. With column of flaming fire over their head, they began to play by
throwing ashes upon one another; like the playful demon’s flirtation with
dust and water.
33. Flames flashed forth from subterranean cells and caves on earth,
and all things situated amidst them, were reddened by their light.
34. All the sides of heaven lost their azure hue, under the vermilion
colour of the clouds which hung over them; and all things and the
rubicund sky, lost their respective hues, and assumed the rosy tint of the
red lotus (sthala padma—growing on land).
35. The world appeared to be covered under a crimson canopy, by the
burning flames which overspread it all around, and resembled the
evening sky under the parting glories of the setting sun.
36. Overspread with the flaming fires, the sky appeared as an
overhanging garden of blooming Asoka flowers, or as a bed of the red
kinsuka blossoms hanging aloft in the sky.
37. The earth appeared to be strewn over with red lotuses and the seas
seemed to be sprinkled with red dye; in this manner the fire blazed in
many forms, with its tails and crests of smoke.
38. The fire of conflagration, raged with its youthful vigour in the
forest, where it glared in variegated colours, as a burning scenery is
shown in a painting.
39. The vicissitudes of sunrise and sunset (i.e. the succession of day
and night), now disappeared from the vindhyan mountain, owing to the
continual burning of the woods upon its summit.
 40. The flying fumes had the appearance of the blue sahya mountain
in the south (Deccan), from their emitting the flashes of fire in the midst,
like the lustre of the gems in that mountain.
41. The blue vault of the sky seemed as a cerulean lake, decorated
with lotus like fire brands all over it, and the flames of fire flashed over
the tops of the cloudy mountains in air (like the brisk dancing of
actresses in a play).
42. Flames of fire with their smoky tails, resembling the train of a
comet, danced about on the stage of the world, in the manner of dancing
actresses, with the loosened and flouncing hair.
43. The burning fire burst the parched ground, and flung its sparkling
particles all around, like the fried rice flying all about the frying pan in
various colours.
44. Then the burning rocks and woods exhibited a golden hue on the
breast of the earth, with their bursting and splitting noise (as if the earth
was beating her breast at her impending destruction).
45. All lands were crushed together with the cry of their inhabitants,
and all the seas dashed against one another, with foaming froths in their
mouths.
46. The waves shone in their faces, with the reflexion of the shining
sun upon them; they clashed against each other, as if they were clapping
their hands; and dashed with such force against the land, that they beat
and broke down the rocks on the sea shore.
47. The raging sea with his billowy arms, grasped the earth and stone,
as foolish men do in their anger; and devoured them in his hollow cell
with a gurgling noise, as fools swallow their false hopes with vain
bawling.
48. The all destroying fire with a hoarse sound, melted down the rivers
with their banks, and the regents of the sphere fell before the geysers.
49. The ten sides of the compass, were out of order and confounded
together; and all the mountains were reduced to the form of liquid gold
(fire), with their woods and abodes and caves and caverns.
50. By degrees the prodigious mountain Meru, was dissolved to snow
by the heat of fire; and soon after the great mount of Himálaya, was
melted down as lac-dye by the same fire.